Replacing strings using regex

Question

I have a very simple regex that seems to work in in online regex testing systems but when I plug it into my code it fails.

I would like to remove items between two comments in html.

I am using the following code to do so:

string source = x;
String matchpattern = @"<!-- link -->.*<!-- /link -->";
String replacementpattern = @"";
string result = Regex.Replace(source, matchpattern, replacementpattern);

where x is the following:

<!-- link -->\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"backToTop\"><a href=\"#content\">    Back to top</a></p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<!-- /link -->

If anyone has any ideas then they would be much appreciated.

Jon Skeet · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-06 14:19:08Z

3

The \n in x is confusing it... but it's easy to fix. Just add a fourth argument of RegexOptions.Singleline so that . still matches \n.

to your Replace call:

string result = Regex.Replace(source, matchPattern, replacementPattern,
                              RegexOptions.Singleline);

edited Jul 6, 2011 at 14:19

answered Jul 6, 2011 at 14:02

Jon Skeet

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1 Comment

Tim Pietzcker Over a year ago

@Prib: Just be aware that things will go bad if x contains more than one pair of comments (because the regex will match from the first  to the last ). Using .*? instead of .* makes this a little safer.

Kirill Polishchuk · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-06 14:05:16Z

0

Set single line option (?s), e.g.: (?s).*

answered Jul 6, 2011 at 14:05

Kirill Polishchuk

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